


you do it naturally (move me baby)

by dottie_wan_kenobi



Series: January Prompt Event [1]
Category: New Teen Titans
Genre: Background Casefic, Background characters - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, POV Alternating, POV Dick Grayson, POV Koriand'r, Rated for cursing, Romance, Undercover Missions, Undercover as a Couple, slightly OOC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28492356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dottie_wan_kenobi/pseuds/dottie_wan_kenobi
Summary: The mission, he thinks. But he’s weak, and he can tell she’s cold by the way her skin is goosebumping. They’re supposed to be dating, right? He can get away with scooting down and wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her back into his sun-warmed chest.Willie certainly looks convinced. But all Dick can think about is the way her breath catches when she leans back, her heart thudding against his own.---Dick and Kory + fake dating tropeWritten for the Bat Family 18+ Discord Server January Prompt Event, Day 1: Undercover Mission | "I can't do this without you."
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r
Series: January Prompt Event [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2087082
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35
Collections: Bat Family 18+ Discord Server January Prompt Event





	you do it naturally (move me baby)

**Author's Note:**

> "Slightly OOC" explanation: in canon, Kory straight up tells Dick that she has feelings and wants to be with him. in this AU, she's slightly more reserved and doesn't do that, meaning they're just friends. idk I didn't think about the background that much honestly
> 
> wrote this all in one day so it wouldn't be late. this isn't a slow burn by any means but still I hope u like it!! also, when I say "background casefic" I mean the case/mission is literally only expanded on when absolutely necessary ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm here for romance not adventure/action sorry lmao
> 
> title from Movement by Hozier bc I was listening to it while writing

“An undercover mission on a cruise ship,” Gar says, amused as he leans back in his chair. “So cartoony and cliche.”

“I don’t know what cartoons you’re watching, man,” Vic replies, huffing half of a laugh. “Sounds boring as hell to me.”

Gar considers this for a moment before throwing his finger to his nose and declaring, “Oh, well in that case, not it!”

Donna shakes her head. “You couldn’t really go anyway, Gar. You’re too recognizable. Now, I’m thinking, we’ll have you lead this one, Dick. You’re good enough at acting and if we change your hair a little, no one will be able to definitively recognize you as Nightwing.”

“I’ll need back-up,” he says, glancing up from the files in his hand. “Gar’s out. Joey too, I think. The target would be able to recognize him easily, and Raven—well, he might not know her face, but you’re not very good at acting. Sorry.”

She waves off his sheepish look. “It’s alright. I don’t exactly want to go on a cruise anyway.”

Joey signs his agreement, then scratches at his sideburns as everyone muses on the fact that he doesn’t try to hide his identity at all. Privacy is something he values more than almost anything, and though he doesn’t begrudge his friends for being more public, Dick knows he could never be so open like that—even as Dick Grayson, he hides from the spotlight and paparazzi. If they knew he was a superhero too… he shudders to think of the madhouse that would be. 

Donna hums, glancing over the other members of the team—namely, Vic and Kory. “How about you, Vic?” She asks. “It’ll be boring but you’re good at acting too. You’d just to have to wear a glamor and then it should be easy enough to blend in.”

Vic rolls his neck with a sigh. Dick can tell what’s coming just by the way his jaw clenches when he looks back at the others, a guarded look in his eye—he still has issues with being half-cyborg. He hates wearing glamors, preferring to hide behind long sleeves and hats. He’d admitted once that that way, he couldn’t fool himself into having hope he was fully human again—all he had to do was roll up the sleeve and see the metal and know the truth. 

Of course, he doesn’t like to be so open usually, and what he says instead is, “I don’t think I’m a good choice here. I mean, even with a glamor on, I can’t get the robot parts wet, you know? Kind of suspicious, going on a cruise and never getting in the pool.”

“True,” Dick says, setting the files down. The others nod understandingly, not willing to call out any other reasons Vic might not want to go. They all know, there’s no reason to upset him.

“Why don’t you go, Donna?” Kory asks, leaning forward over the table, her hair falling over her crossed arms. Dick can hardly stand to look at her for too long—she’s beautiful and it makes his chest clench up uncomfortably. He’s got a perfect poker face but somehow Donna and Vic can see through it when it comes to her. The thought of his feelings being so visible—of being so vulnerable, even if just around friends—is unbearable. So he doesn’t look at her, or her lovely golden skin, or her fluffy and fiery hair, or her shining eyes or her plush mouth or—

“He’d know your face but you could use the glamor,” Vic adds, glancing at Dick briefly. Their gazes meet and Vic flicks his eyes up and back to him, a teasing gesture that says he knows exactly what Dick is thinking about. Then, thank god, he looks back to Donna, even if he is smirking.

Donna leans back a bit, though her posture remains tall and perfect. “I could, but actually, the weekend that this is happening is kind of inconvenient. Diana’s taking me to Themyscira on Thursday, I can’t get out of it nor do I want to.”

Dick glances at her, noticing immediately the way her fingers are tapping on the table. _Nervous or lying?_ he wonders, but immediately realizes she’s just nervous. About what, he isn’t sure. But she so rarely lies to him—and he could count the number of times she’d lied about something mission-related, in all the years they’d known each other, on one hand—that he dismisses the idea without thinking much more on it.

Donna gives him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Dick, if I could then of course I would go with you.”

He waves her off. “It’s alright, really. Have fun while you’re there. When you get back you can tell me all about it.”

“After we debrief, obviously.”

“Duh,” he grins.

Donna returns the smile before her eyes drift around the table. Gar and Raven are whispering about something, and Vic is glancing between them and Dick and Donna. Joey is looking at Kory with a knowing sort of tilt of the head. And Kory is—looking right at Dick.

Dick finds an invisible piece of lint on the file to dust away. He can still feel her eyes on him. _Wow, sure is dusty_ , he thinks, wiping away another non-existent speck.

“Well,” Donna says, smacking her hands gently onto the table. “I think that means Kory’s the only one who can go with you.”

“You don’t mind wearing a glamor, do you?” Vic asks her, though of course, they all know the answer. 

“You know I don’t,” she says. She doesn’t have to explain further, but Dick thinks about it anyway. Kory doesn’t mind wearing them at all—she prefers to look like herself whenever possible, but she’s said before that it can be fun to pretend to be someone else too. 

(He has his own opinions, though he’s never said it out loud for… many reasons.)

(She’s beautiful. Bruce would say she’s a real knock out. And though her different faces under glamors are nice too, he knows he’ll always prefer the real her over any of them. But that’s too—intimate, and possessive, and sappy. He’s never told anyone that before, except for Donna of course. But Donna has only ever agreed with him there—”It’s impossible to deny,” she’d said once, jokingly serious as she sipped her soda. “Kory is stunning.”)

She peeks at him and bites her lip. His brain shudders and blinks and comes back online only once she’s released it. Vic snorts at him and he hurriedly stills himself, not letting anything through. He swears, if Gar realizes something is up because Vic can’t keep his laughs down—

“If Dick doesn’t mind, then I see no reason why I can’t go.”

“I—I don’t mind,” Dick replies at the same time Donna says, “Oh, he doesn’t mind.”

Dick shoots her an annoyed scowl, which only deepens when she winks at him. Stiffly, he turns to Kory, who’s watching with an expression he can’t quite parse. “Come on,” he says, ignoring Donna and Vic laughing at him, and Joey who’s poking at Kory, and Gar and Raven who hopefully have no idea what’s happening inside him right then. “Let’s go over this file and get our story together.”

* * *

Kory regrets it almost immediately.

The cruise is lovely. The salty air reminds her of fun times on the beach with the other Titans, and there’s a certain thrill in the way that people’s eyes slide right over her. She enjoys being well-known and is flattered when people find her attractive. But it’s fun, sometimes, to feel like she’s just another Earthling, currently on the arm of her boyfriend and ready to have a few days of sun.

The issue isn’t the air or the anonymity, or even the vigilance needed to look out for their man. It’s Dick. It’s Dick being her fake boyfriend, instead of her real one. It’s the fact that there’s _only one bed_ in their cabin.

Dick sets the bag of surveillance equipment down on the end of the mattress beside their things. His expression is frustratingly shuttered, and she can practically see the mask he’s wearing, the one that he never lets down.

“You can have the bed,” he says. “I’ll take the couch.”

“I believe that’s a love seat, isn’t it?” She asks. “It’s too small for you to sleep on it.”

“The floor, then,” he says gamely.

She knows what he’s doing. The whole ‘gentlemen act’ thing that Lilith told her about. Any other time, she might find it sweet of him, but today she’s looking at the love seat and at the bed, thinking about sleeping beside him. This might be her only chance to, to be so close to him. 

In their years of friendship, she’s always imagined them being more, but it’s never happened. Joey has teased her about it before, how lovesick she looks. And of course there’s Donna, who tells her all the time that she should just make a move.

Kory isn’t a reserved person. Anyone else, and she would’ve already said something. Years ago, really. But this is Dick—one of her best friends, the man she loves. She knows emotions make him feel uncomfortable, and more than that, she _doesn’t_ know what he feels for her back. Friends or more? She doesn’t want to risk losing him.

But… there are appearances to keep up on this mission. And if she can have this little bit of him, she’s got to at least try.

She sits down beside the bags and stretches her arm across the bed. “We’ll share the bed,” she says, mimicking his leader tone, brooking no arguments. “It’s big enough for us both, see?”

He doesn’t see—he’s busy looking anywhere but her—but says, “If you’re sure.”

“I am,” she lies.

* * *

“Your girlfriend is just adorable,” a stranger says on the deck of the ship. “She looks so happy!”

Dick, with brown hair and brown eyes to match Kory’s own, smiles and replies with niceties that vacate his memory as soon as the woman leaves. Then his eyes go back to his ‘girlfriend’—to Kory.

Like he expected, she’s lovely under the glamor, but she’s not herself. He sighs shallowly, missing her fluffy red hair and her height (her glamors _always_ make her shorter, and he hates it), and sips at his water. 

Kory comes over a few minutes later, eyes shining from the excitement of the dance floor, and pulls along with her a man who he recognizes from the files—their target’s right hand man. He’s only a bit older than them, and drunk off his power.

“Look,” Kory says, giggling in a way he can tell is false immediately. Her real laugh is deeper, coming from her chest, and she always closes her eyes like whatever it is is just so funny she can’t look at it anymore. All part of the act, he thinks. They’re both supposed to be a little shallow, a little ditzy. Their target likes easy prey like that. “Jake, I wanted to introduce you to my new friend! Jake, this is Willie. Willie, my boyfriend Jake.”

“Hey, man,” Dick says, sticking out his hand and giving him a winning, too-bright smile. “Any friends of Andie are friends of mine too. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too,” he says, his handshake far too tight. Dick allows him to feel big and bad for it, shaking his fingers out when they let go and pretending not to see the smug smirk on Willie’s face. “I was just telling Andie here how beautiful she is. I work for a modeling company, y’see, and well when she told me you were her boy, I’ve gotta say, I can see you two going far. You’ll be famous, I bet. Couples shoots are always fun.”

Modeling. It’s the cover for a trafficking ring. Dick and Kory share a glance, both of them stuffing down their revulsion and anger—there’s nothing they can do about it yet. He looks back at Willie, widening his eyes and letting his mouth curl up like it’s his dream job and this could be his big break. “R-really? I could be a model? You know, I’ve always been told I’m pretty, but I never thought….”

“Let me tell you both all about it,” Willie says, gesturing for Kory to sit in the booth beside him. Kory sits next to Dick instead, but Willie’s devious energy doesn’t falter for a second.

* * *

They’re stumbling back to their room when someone in the hall—a young woman about their age, surrounded by friends—tells Kory, slurring drunkenly, “You and your boyfriend are so fucking hot. I don’t know if I want to be you or him.” There’s a murmur as her friends agree.

“Thank you,” she replies, a bit unsure if it’s a compliment or not. The group giggle and walk past, and Dick relaxes minutely. He fiddles with the door until it finally opens, and they stumble in, both of them fully sober despite their false appearances.

“That was miserable,” he says, kicking off his shoes and falling onto the couch.

She exhales sharply thinking about Willie and his promise to let them meet his ‘friend in the business’ the next day. It’s going to be really fun punching him in the face when this is all over. Pulling off her heels, she tries not to think about the fact that there are still several days of this mission left to go.

“I’m going to shower,” she says, stopping beside the couch and poking him with her knee. He doesn’t even flinch, but he doesn’t jokingly push her away like he would Donna or Raven either. “Don’t fall asleep on this couch. I _will_ pick you up and put you on the bed.”

“Well, we don’t want that,” he replies dryly, but sits up anyway. “I wanna wash him off me too, so don’t use up all the hot water please.”

“I make no promises,” she teases and doesn’t wait for a response before she leaves for the ensuite.

* * *

He’s an idiot, he realizes the next day. They’re by the pool, waiting for Willie’s ‘friend’—the target, they hope and expect—and Kory’s doing laps with one of the girls from last night. She’d recognized them and started chatting, and now Kory’s been sucked into it, and Dick is sitting there watching them talk. He should be thinking about the mission. Instead all he can see is her newly-brown hair clinging to her shoulders, all he can remember being the way she felt this morning, cradled in his arms.

They hadn’t fallen asleep cuddling. He’d been very insistent on staying on their own sides. Well, Kory had stayed on her side. He hadn’t.

And now he’s suffering for it.

It would be so nice to wake up next to Kory again. Again and again forever, preferably. There’s so many reasons why he shouldn’t—he’s got them memorized at this point: he’s the team leader, they’re superheroes and the life isn’t conducive for relationships, they’re friends and he would surely crumble if they lost each other, and a million more—but. He’s weak, and an idiot, and he’s going to have to sleep on the damn floor tonight no matter what she says.

He looks up at her. Water has slicked her hair back and is clinging to her eyelashes. He wonders if she still smells like her shampoo—which he knows, now, is something fruity and wonderful—or if it’s been overpowered by chlorine.

There’s movement in the corner of his eye and he sees Willie heading right for him, still smirking like a predator on the edge of victory.

_This is a mission,_ he tells himself viciously. _There’s no room for your stupid feelings._

“Andie,” he calls, affecting excitement, and tips his head in Willie’s direction.

She untangles herself from her new friend and joins Dick, sitting between his feet at the edge of the pool chair. He hands her a towel and she quickly throws it over her shoulders.

_The mission,_ he thinks. But he’s weak, and he can tell she’s cold by the way her skin is goosebumping. They’re supposed to be dating, right? He can get away with scooting down and wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her back into his sun-warmed chest.

Willie certainly looks convinced. But all Dick can think about is the way her breath catches when she leans back, her heart thudding against his own.

* * *

She’s an idiot.

She should’ve known this would be too much. 

It’s all too easy to fall into the act, to convince Willie and everyone else they come across that they’re a young couple, in love and incandescently happy together. He’s so touchy, in a way she’s never seen before. Being touched by him is dizzying and amazing, and she revels in it even though she knows—she _knows_ —it’s fake.

His arm is around her back as they walk back to their room. Things progressed today with their target, and Dick displayed his fake-excitement for the deal they were making with him by kissing her cheek. She can still feel its phantom hours later.

This isn’t fair, she realizes as he slips a step away to open the door. It’s not fair to either of them. She’s only hurting herself by hiding her feelings, and he deserves to know what’s going on, what he’s doing. (It’s for the mission. He’s not meaning to encourage her. She knows that, but still, he needs to be told.)

They step inside and Dick goes to the love seat, sitting and pulling their radio into his lap. He pulls on the headphones over one of his ears, and she can hear one of Joey’s favorite songs filtering through the other one. It pauses as Dick relays the new information, and Vic says something, Raven’s voice following. 

Kory waits until the briefing starts turning into banter before she says, “Dick? I need to talk to you about something. Can you turn that off for a minute?”

Dick gives her an assessing look as he signs off and puts the radio away. He shifts to make more room for her, and she sits, both of their backs pressed to the armrests so they can see each other. 

“What is it?” He asks. “Did you see something? Did… did you want to pull out? I know this is a lot—”

“No, it’s… it’s not about the mission.” Her fingers find the necklace she’s wearing, a gift from Dick he gave her on the first birthday she spent on earth. Holding the smooth pendant of a galaxy helps her feel a little more grounded—though, she doesn’t miss the way he notices her gesture. Having those sharp eyes on her leaves her feeling a bit tense, seen. Like he might pounce, even though she knows even if he feels uncomfortable with this, he won’t be mean about it.

“Hey,” he says, soft. His hand twitches on his thigh, sliding down to where their knees are almost touching, but he doesn’t reach out. She’s both grateful and upset, wishing she could hold his hand while she confesses some of her closest-held secrets. “It’s okay, whatever it is. You can tell me.”

She nods, because she knows she can. He’s a wonderful friend and leader, and even if he’s not half as open as the rest of them are, they all know they can turn to him with anything.

She also knows that drawing this out will only make it worse for them both.

“I’m in love with you,” she says, letting out a slow breath even as more words build up in her chest.

* * *

_That’s funny,_ he thinks with absolutely no amusement, his heart suddenly pounding in his throat. _I thought I just heard her say—_

“I’m in love with you, and I know that that might make things awkward, but—I realized you had to know. Playing a couple like this has been… really difficult for me. I know it’s not real, but sometimes I forget and have to remind myself, and—and it’s not okay. That I’m doing that to you.” She searches his eyes, but he doesn’t know what she’s looking for. Doesn’t know if she’ll find it there or not. Her grip on the necklace he got her tightens slightly, her hands trembling.

Oh, how he wants to reach out, cradle her hands in his own, make her feel better. But he’s frozen, caught by the suddenness and his own feelings and the instinctive urge to avoid emotional vulnerability whenever possible.

Finally, she says, low and soft and sad, “It feels real for me, no matter how hard I try to tell myself it’s not.”

When she sat down, when she said she’d needed to talk, his first guess had been that she was going to pull out of the mission. He could picture her looking just past his eyes, telling him that he was being too—coupley, too close, too obviously in love with her. That he was making her uncomfortable and she wanted out.

He was going to say yes, of course. Maybe try and tough it out himself, or beg Raven to help, because he didn’t want to bother Donna or make Vic uncomfortable too. But then she said—that.

Is he dreaming? Did that asshole Willie drug him? This can’t be real life. She can’t really be saying this stuff, can she?

“Kory—” he starts, but his voice catches.

She freezes for a split second. Then she leans forward, her hand—still shivering a fine tremor, just enough he can feel it—rests over top of his on his knee. “It’s okay,” she says, and takes the warmth of her back, both of her arms wrapping around her stomach. “I understand. If—if you’d rather I go, or not be on this mission anymore with you, just tell me. I’ll go.”

“Kory,” he says. He doesn’t _want_ her to go, that’s actually one of the very last things he wants right now.

“I’m not mad,” she assures him. “We can have Raven come, or maybe Vic would agree to it….”

No, he thinks. He leans forward now himself, and slowly—giving her time to push him away—cups her cheeks in his hands. He wishes he could see her real face. As it is, he’ll take the glimmer in her eye. As long as she’s still there with him, he’ll take anything. “Don’t go, please. I can’t do this without you,” he says.

* * *

His palms are warm on her face. His fingertips are calloused and tickle her skin, but they’re like anchors too, keeping her in the moment. He’s touching her, and she doesn’t think it’s for the act—they’re alone here, and though she’s not herself, though his eyes and hair are different and there’s a slight glamor on his nose to make it look like it hasn’t been broken repeatedly—it’s _them_. Just them.

“I—I—”

“It’s okay,” she whispers, one of her hands coming up to frame his on her cheek. “It’s just me. You can tell me anything, Dick.”

He swallows, scanning her face. She keeps her expression open, hoping he’ll see what he’s looking for. Even if he’s about to say he only wants to be her friend, well—she loves him. If he opened up to her, she would be honored, and she would do everything she could to make him feel safe to do it again.

Finally, he lets out a breath. His voice is quiet, like he’s afraid of being heard, when he says, “Kory, I—I love you too.”

She gasps raggedly, her eyes filling with happy tears. She never thought she’d hear those words from him, but here they are, here _he_ is—

His eyes drop, roaming the rest of her face as he admits, “It’s been hard for me, too. Every time someone called you my girlfriend, I wished it was true. Every time I touched you, I meant it.”

“Dick,” she breathes out, watching as he inhales.

“I didn’t think it would be like this,” he says, huffing a laugh. “I thought I could do it. That I could get through the mission and handle everything, and we could just keep going on the way we have once we got back home.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” she says, squeezing his fingers gently, “but I don’t want to keep on the same way, either. I’ve wanted you for years. I’ve loved you for years. If you feel the same way, I want to—to see what we could be.”

* * *

He doesn’t know how to say he has concerns. He doesn’t know if he even wants to say them. It feels so good right here, touching her and talking to her, that they seem inconsequential. His million reasons are far, far away. They feel like excuses, shields to hide behind—he doesn’t know if he still needs them.

“You’re beautiful, you know.” He rubs his thumb over her cheekbone. “Like this too, but I’ll be happy to see your real face again.”

She wants to go home after all this and really be together. There’s a future pounding in his head as he looks at her, their eyes connected.

As one, they lean in, and kiss. Their mouths move against each other slowly, chaste, and they break away soon enough with twin puffs of air. It feels like he’s been electrified, like he’s just leapt off a building and is still enjoying the freefall before something catches him. 

Finally, he says, “I want that too. I want whatever you’ll give me.”

“Anything,” she replies, tucking herself around him. “Will you give me the same?”

He kisses her again, a peck on the lips that branches off up her nose and across her forehead. He’s never felt so vulnerable in his life, but it doesn’t feel like a gaping chasm all around him, darkness and danger. It’s light and warm, and he can smell her shampoo and lotion and chlorine. She’s a comforting weight against him. He says, “I’ll give you everything, Kory,” and he means it.

**Author's Note:**

> not mentioned in the fic, but Donna 100% set this up. there was no trip to Themyscira.
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at [dottie-wan-kenobi](https://dottie-wan-kenobi.tumblr.com)
> 
> if you liked this, please consider leaving a comment, thank you!! <3


End file.
